A manual hoist typically includes a hand wheel. The hand wheel has grooves defined therein for receiving a chain that is used to manually turn the hand wheel which is connected to a drive shaft. The drive shaft is connected to a set of gears that multiplies the force on the hand wheel to provide for raising and lowering a heavy load supported on a load sprocket by a load chain. The load is connected to the load chain by an attachment device such as a hook. When there is no load applied to the load sprocket, it takes a long time to raise and lower the attachment device because of the gear ratio. Accordingly, there is a need for a device capable of reducing the amount of time required to move the attachment device on an unloaded or lightly loaded system.